Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. met with Steve Kerr about the status of his job earlier this week.

Kerr’s coaching contract is expiring and there hasn’t been any indication whether he would want to return, or whether the Warriors want him back at the helm. According to ESPN, the three had a two-hour meeting Monday that was described as “productive.”

Following their meeting, the consensus is that the parties are at a standstill. Although discussions are expected to continue into the upcoming week, there is seemingly no urgency to come to a decision. As one source told ESPN, “It’s April. We don’t need to rush.”

According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole, the drawn out process isn’t a matter of a contract negotiation over dollars, but instead about “professional and personal principles.”

“From what I understand, (Kerr) in those meetings didn’t sound like someone who didn’t plan on coaching next season,” one league source told NBC Sports Bay Area.

Another league source told NBC Sports Bay Area: “I think it’s more like 50-50 that he comes back. When the season ended, I would have said it was at least 60-40 that he’d leave.”

There are reportedly contingencies from both sides. Kerr wants to ensure the roster is competitive. The 12th-year coach who has won four championships appears to not be interested in rebuilding or development.

“I still love coaching, but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. There’s a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas and all that,” Kerr said following the Warriors’ play-in loss to the Suns.

Kerr has loved his time coaching in the Bay Area, especially coaching Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. That could be enough to keep him around. But also, it could be a gripe for the front office.

According to NBC Sports Bay Area, the front office would like to see Kerr welcome younger players into his coaching schemes and demand more accountability from older players, including Curry and Green.

The other elephant in the room is Kerr’s outspokenness on sociopolitical issues. Andscape’s Marc J. Spears suggests that he could leave for “fatigue” but also due to the possibility he’s “being stifled a little bit.”

“Maybe fatigue. There’s a weight that comes with that job. This is a franchise that is expected to have greatness, whether it has it on the roster or not. It’s a brand now. You got Steph, so if you trot Steph out there, you have Draymond out there, people expect something great. There’s a weight that comes with that,” Spears said during an April 21 appearance on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” radio show.

He added: “I also think that Steve also truly respects the weight of the job that he has, the weight of the platform that he has. He speaks out on social justice issues, he speaks out on racism issues, he speaks out on gun violence and I’ve heard a little bit that maybe he’s being stifled a little bit in that regard. I’d like to find out a little more than that, if that’s true or not, dig deeper into that . . . I’m hearing that might be something in the background.”

With all that being said, Spears said with all he’s heard, “everything is up to Kerr.”

The Orlando Magic will try to close out the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 of their first-round series. The Magic lead the series 3-2 but lost Game 5. Detroit is favored by 3.5 points. The total is set at 209.5 for this Eastern Conference matchup.

How to watch Detroit Pistons vs. Orlando Magic

• Date: Friday, May 1

• Time: 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT

• Where: Kia Center, Orlando, Florida

• TV Channels: Amaz

• Live Stream:NBA League Pass | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Orlando Magic +3.5

• Moneyline: Orlando Magic +137 (40.5%) / Detroit Pistons -163 (59.5%)

• Over/Under: 209.5

Series results, schedule (all times Eastern)

Game 1:Magic 112, Pistons 101
Game 2:Pistons 98, Magic 83
Game 3:Magic 113, Pistons 105
Game 4:Magic 94, Pistons 88
Game 5:Pistons 116, Magic 109
Game 6: Fri., May 1, at Orlando (7 p.m., Amazon)
*Game 7: Sun., May 3, at Detroit (time and network TBD)

*if necessary

The Milwaukee Brewers placed pitcher Brandon Woodruff on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, the team announced Friday.

That outcome seemed imminent after Woodruff left Thursday’s start against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second inning. Facing only six batters, Woodruff showed diminished velocity with his fastball, averaging 85.4 mph (and topping out at 86.9 mph) after averaging 92.5 mph during his first five starts of the season.

Following the game, Brewers manager Pat Murphy told reporters Woodruff said that his arm was “dead” and couldn’t throw with higher velocity. Yet he didn’t feel like he was injured.

“I think we just have to be really cautious here,” Murphy said. “We’re going to get him checked out. We’re going to get him tested.”

Talking to reporters Friday, Woodruff confirmed an MRI revealed right shoulder inflammation but didn’t seem concerned that he would be out for very long.

“I went out [Thursday] and, honestly, I felt good,” he said. “Nothing alarmed me and I went out for my start, and the ball just wasn’t coming out. A little inflammation in there from the image.

“But after talking with our staff and Dr. [Keith] Meister — I had a conversation with him, my surgeon — it should be a pretty minimum stint here, which is good news,” he added.

Woodruff, 33, has experience with more serious injuries, undergoing surgery on his right shoulder (performed by Meister, a renowned orthopedic surgeon and the head physician for the Texas Rangers) in 2023 that sidelined him for the entire 2024 season.

Last year, Woodruff went on the IL with a right lat strain that resulted in him being shut down in mid-September. He finished with 64 2/3 innings in 12 starts, compiling a 3.20 ERA, 7-2 record and 83 strikeouts.

The Brewers go into Friday’s matchup with the Washington Nationals with a 16-14 record and fourth in the National League Central division, 3.5 games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds.

The Western Conference’s second-seeded San Antonio Spurs will take on the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of the 2026 NBA playoffs. It’s the first time these teams have squared off in the postseason since 2001, when Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Co. outclassed Kevin Garnett’s overmatched squad in a 3-1 opening-round win.

(That’s right: San Antonio and Minnesota haven’t played in the postseason since the first round was only five games. And if you remember that, do me a favor and please also remember to schedule that colonoscopy screening. We can’t be too careful at our ages.)

Schedule| Odds | Spurs breakdown | Wolves breakdown
Head-to-head| Matchup to watch | Key question| Prediction

Series schedule

Game 1: Mon., May 4 at San Antonio (time and network TBD)
Game 2: Wed., May 6 at San Antonio (TBD)
Game 3: Fri., May 8 at Minnesota (TBD)
Game 4: Sun., May 10 at Minnesota (TBD)
*Game 5: Tue., May 12 at San Antonio (TBD)
*Game 6: Fri., May 15 at Minnesota (TBD)
*Game 7: Sun., May 17 at San Antonio (TBD)

*if necessary

Series odds

San Antonio Spurs (-2000)
Minnesota Timberwolves (+950)

What we know about the Spurs

That, despite their relative youth, they are not just happy to be here.

San Antonio handled its business viciously, efficiently and with aplomb in Round 1. The NBA’s No. 3 regular-season defense held the Trail Blazers below 100 points three times in five games, limiting Portland to 40% shooting from the field and 30% shooting from 3-point range. Ascendant backcourt stars Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper looked mighty comfortable in their maiden postseason voyage, most notably when they combined for 60 points on the road in a Game 3 win. Veteran lead guard De’Aaron Fox earned his keep, leading the Spurs in scoring in Games 4 and 5 to close the Blazers out.

Portland’s lone win came after Victor Wembanyama left Game 2 early following a frightening fall that landed him in the NBA’s concussion protocol. When he returned for Game 4, though, so too did San Antonio’s sense of near-invulnerability; the Spurs outscored the Blazers by 45 points in the 112 minutes that the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year saw in the series. That works out to nearly 20 points per 100 possessions — a level of dominance firmly in keeping with his full-season impact for a Spurs team that now moves past the first round for the first time since 2017.

What we know about the Timberwolves

That they’re tough as s***.

After a somewhat wobbly regular season that led some to wonder whether a two-time conference finalist had grown complacent or bored with the 82-game preamble preceding the pulse-quickening postseason, the Wolves bounced back from a rocky Game 1 to make it clear that, two springs later, they were still the monster hiding underneath the Nuggets’ beds. Minnesota erased a 19-point deficit on the road to win Game 2 and steal home-court advantage, then blitzed Nikola Jokić and Co. in Games 3 and 4 by a combined 33 points to push favored Denver to the brink of elimination — this, despite losing All-NBA centerpiece Anthony Edwards and starting shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo in the first half of Game 4.

Jaden McDaniels called out every single Nugget’s defense and then backed up his talk, averaging 17.8 points per game on 49.4% shooting in the series. When Edwards and DiVincenzo went down, trade-deadline acquisition Ayo Dosunmu stepped up, delivering a 43-point Game 4 masterclass to become a Twin Cities folk hero. And when Dosunmu, too, became unavailable due to right calf soreness for Game 6, leaving the Wolves without their top three guards in a closeout game, it was McDaniels (32 points and 10 rebounds in 45 minutes) and little-used sophomore wing Terrence Shannon Jr. (24 points and six rebounds) who stepped in to join Julius Randle and Naz Reid in shouldering enough of the offensive workload to finish the job.

The offense held up because the defense never buckled. Rudy Gobert’s defensive reputation shouldn’t have needed any rehabilitation to begin with, but after what he just did against Jokić — holding him to 42% shooting when they were matched up, and with Denver losing the Jokić vs. Gobert minutes behind a league-worst-caliber offensive efficiency mark — his bona fides shouldn’t come under question again. McDaniels all but erased Jamal Murray from the series, helping limit the All-Star point guard to 34% shooting over the final four games.

A Denver offense that led the NBA in efficiency during the regular season scored nearly 14 fewer points-per-100 against this snarling Minnesota defense; three of the Nuggets’ seven worst offensive performances of the season came in the past week.

This is who Minnesota has been during these past few years: a physical, unrelenting crew eager to take any opponent to the mat, even a three-time MVP, and just maul ’em. Doing that against a fully healthy, rested and operational Spurs team profiles as an awfully daunting task, especially given the myriad injury issues the Wolves are now navigating. You know the old saying about wounded animals, though; the Spurs look past Chris Finch’s club, compromised though it might be, at their own peril. 

Head-to-head

Minnesota won the season series, 2-1.

The Wolves took the opener in November, 125-112, behind an efficient 32 points from Edwards; a 22-point, 12-assist double-double from Randle and blistering 46% 3-point shooting as a team in what went down as San Antonio’s worst defensive performance of the season:

Minnesota just edged out the Spurs in their next meeting, with Edwards drawing Wembanyama on a switch before sliding around a screen for a tough runner that proved to be the game-winner in a 104-103 thriller:

“I was like, ‘Damn! Do I got the shot? Do I drive on him?’” Edwards told reporters after the game. “I was confused. I ain’t never been confused. I ain’t going to lie. I’m like, ‘S***, I’m [going to throw it] to Ju[lius Randle]. I don’t know what to do right now. […] I feel like he thought I was going to take a jump shot, for sure. He probably would’ve blocked that s***, so I had to drive him.”

San Antonio struck back six nights later, eking out a 126-123 victory despite a career-high 55 from Edwards, thanks to 39 points in 30 minutes from Wembanyama, 25 points and 12 dimes from Fox, and 20 points off the bench from Sixth Man of the Year winner Keldon Johnson:

There are caveats. Wembanyama and Castle missed the first Wolves win. Devin Vassell missed both January meetings. And, of course, a lot has changed in the four and a half months since the teams last squared off — most notably that DiVincenzo (who had the second-highest plus-minus of any Timberwolf against San Antonio during the regular season) won’t factor into the matchup, and that Edwards (who averaged 36.7 points per game on 58.3% shooting against the Spurs this season) might not, either.

Matchup to watch

The Wolves’ promoted ball-handlers vs. the Spurs’ elite defense

On one hand, Minnesota scored 114.3 points-per-100 against San Antonio in 58 minutes with Wembanyama on the floor during the regular season — which, considering the league at large scored just 103.6 points-per-100 in Wemby’s minutes, is pretty damn good! On the other, though, 47 of those 58 minutes came with Edwards at the controls for the Wolves, and all 58 of them came with at least one of Edwards or DiVincenzo on the floor … which, y’know, renders that sample a little trickier to parse, given the current state of affairs for Finch’s team.

After the injuries to Edwards and DiVincenzo, Minnesota’s offense scored at about a league-average clip for the remainder of Round 1, but did so against a much more permissive defense than the one San Antonio brings to bear. Without their starting backcourt — for at least the early part of the series, with Edwards’ status looming as (spoiler alert) The Key Question in this matchup — the Wolves must search for shot creation elsewhere, and Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson will have to decide how to deploy his phalanx of nasty, long-limbed defenders in an attempt to render that search unfruitful.

If Dosunmu’s calf injury clears up, he’ll be tasked with resuming primary ball-handling duties against the likes of All-Defensive Team candidate Castle — a significantly sterner test than anything Denver threw at him. If Ayo’s not ready, and with Edwards sidelined, would Johnson station his sophomore stopper on Randle, aiming to fluster and frustrate the three-time All-Star by having a smaller, quicker disruptor get underneath him and pressure his dribble?

Maybe not, if Finch keeps the electric Shannon in the starting lineup after his breakout 24-point performance in Game 6:

Can Shannon continue flexing his muscle on those north-south drives against the Spurs’ size and length on the perimeter? Can McDaniels continue to soak up more isolation and shot-creation possessions while operating as the primary defender on Fox — and, when Finch wants to shake things up, pulling shifts on Wembanyama with Gobert helping behind him, as he did in San Antonio’s January win? How much can Minnesota rely on veteran caretaker Mike Conley, who was largely out of the rotation until the injuries mounted but contributed 27 big minutes in the Game 6 clincher, against a Spurs backcourt full of bigger, stronger guards who can hunt him on the defensive end?

If Finch doesn’t like the sound of that, fearing the prospect of introducing a smaller target into his defensive ecosystem, does he instead veer the other way, looking for more opportunities to supersize with lineups featuring all three of Gobert, Randle and Reid? Those units played just 56 minutes together during the regular season, but were plus-15 in 17 minutes in Game 6 against Denver and could give the Wolves the opportunity to force a Spurs squad that typically flanks Wembanyama with small-ball 4s Julian Champagnie and Harrison Barnes to deal with a physicality disadvantage up front — a potential pathway to offensive rebounding opportunities, paint points and fouls to get into the bonus and muck the game up.

It remains to be seen whether any of those options will provide a consistently reliable pathway to points against a Spurs defense that’s been elite all season in limiting rim attempts, contesting the arc, preventing fast-break opportunities and dominating the glass. But some combination of them — continued breakouts from unlikely sources, a tactical curveball from Finch, a monster performance from the giganto-ball look — will have to make the favorites play off the back foot if the Wolves want to have a chance to steal a game early, extend the series and potentially give their game-breaking superstar a chance to get back and change the math.

About that …

Key question

Can Anthony Edwards make an impact on this series?

At the risk of overstating the obvious, Minnesota’s chances of being able to pull the upset increase dramatically if Edwards — who finished third in the NBA in scoring during the regular season, becoming one of just 10 guards ever to average at least 28 points per game on a true shooting percentage (which factors in 2-point, 3-point and free-throw accuracy) higher than 60% — is able to play. As it stands, though, that’s a big “if.”

Right knee inflammation sidelined Edwards for 11 of the Wolves’ final 14 regular-season games. He returned in time for the playoffs, but was pretty clearly not his All-NBA self, shooting 39% from the field and 25% from 3-point range in the first three games against Denver. And then, late in the first half of Game 4, he landed awkwardly after elevating to protect the rim, resulting in a hyperextension and bone bruise in his left knee — an injury that is considered a “week-to-week” proposition.

So: How many weeks might it take before Edwards could be available?

“There is a chance that Edwards returns at some point in this series,” according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. “But he is not expected to be back for the start of it.”

Friday’s Game 3 would mark 13 days since he suffered the injury. If two weeks is enough for Minnesota’s medical team to get Edwards — a famously fast healer in the past — not only back in the fold, but back with the requisite explosiveness to elevate on jumpers and attack the rim with his typical force, it could go a long way toward giving Minnesota a puncher’s chance against heavily favored San Antonio. If he needs more weeks than that, though … well, there just might not be enough weeks left for him to have a say in whether the Spurs advance to the Western Conference finals.

Prediction: Spurs in six

If I knew for a fact that Dosunmu was 100% and that Ant would be back midway through the series, I’d think hard about Minnesota here; you don’t win as many playoff series as the Wolves have over these past few years, in as many different ways as they’ve won them, without earning a certain measure of respect. But I’m not sure toughness and smothering defense will be enough to outlast an opponent that pairs those traits with depth, youth and an alien. The Wolves make a proud stand, but the Spurs march on to the Western Conference finals.

Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin tried to set the record straight about new owner Tom Dundon during his end-of-season news conference on Thursday.

Cronin discussed his growing connection with the 54-year-old Texas billionaire, who thrived in the auto loan business and also owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. As for the myriad reports about Dundon’s cost-cutting measures during his first month at the helm in Portland, Cronin said that they aren’t “an accurate depiction of what his goals are.”

When asked specifically about the Blazers not sending their three two-way players to San Antonio for the first two games of their first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs, Cronin took responsibility for that blunder. Portland received flak after it was the only team to not send its two-way players on the road for the first weekend of this season’s playoffs. While two-way players — who are on contracts that allow them to split time between the NBA and the G League — aren’t eligible to play in the NBA postseason, it’s customary that they make playoff trips with their NBA teams.

“That one’s on me,” Cronin, who became full-time GM in May 2022, told reporters Thursday. “It was more of a miscommunication on my end. We’ve talked about doing some traveling party reductions.

“Next year, we’ll run a little lighter. I just assumed that meant including them, and I didn’t double check. And we fixed that mistake. We brought those guys to San Antonio [for Game 5]. That was on me for not communicating properly.”

Soobum Im via Getty Images

Game 5 is when the Blazers’ season came to a close, as they bowed out of the playoffs to the No. 2 seeded Spurs after returning to the postseason for the first time since 2021. Interim head coach Tiago Splitter helped Portland end its four-year playoff drought.

Splitter took over for Chauncey Billups after the first game of the 2025-26 season. Billups, a Basketball Hall of Famer, was arrested in an FBI gambling probe this fall. In his absence, Splitter piloted the Blazers to 42 wins, plus another in the play-in tournament that secured them the No. 7 seed in the West.

Even so, the full-time job hasn’t been given to the 41-year-old Brazilian native, who played seven seasons in the NBA as a center prior to embarking on his coaching career. As he guided the Blazers into the postseason, reports swirled about who else Portland’s been considering at the head-coaching position.

So what is Splitter’s status?

“The current status is Tiago is a candidate for the position, but we’re also looking around at other candidates,” Cronin said. “We decided early on we were going to cast a wide net and get to know a lot of different coaches and analyze and evaluate them in relation to Tiago.

“And timeline-wise, we don’t have a timeline pinned down. We just want to keep meeting people and keep talking to people and having a really thorough process.”

Cronin was peppered with a few questions about the Billups situation. He said he couldn’t comment on it at the moment and that there are no updates he can provide right now. Billups has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges and remains on leave from the NBA.

There’s been more than just uncertainty about whom Portland will hire to lead the team next season.

‘A lot of the reports on budget out there were a little misleading’

There have also been reports that the Blazers aren’t willing to pay top dollar for a head coach under Dundon.

“A lot of the reports on budget out there were a little misleading,” Cronin said. “Have talked to Tom a lot about this. We’re going to pay the coach based on some sort of level of shared risk. If it’s a first-time coach who comes with a lot of risk and doesn’t have a market that we have to necessarily compete in, it’ll be one number.

“If the coach we’re talking to is a 15-year vet and a future Hall of Famer, it’s going to be a completely different number, and Tom isn’t going to flinch at either of those scenarios. We’re going to be very open-minded to what types of people we interview and would potentially bring in, and I’m not concerned about the number at all.”

The speculation has run rampant, especially on the heels of reportsthat Blazers staffers were asked to check out of their Phoenix-area hotel rooms hours before the first team bus left for a play-in game versus the Suns so that Portland could avoid late-checkout fees.

In The Athletic’s report, it noted early checkouts were required of all traveling party members, except the team’s players and coaches, and that it was an order from Dundon.

Discourse about the Blazers slashing expenses has been hard to ignore, especially in the wake of the two-way player omission on the first trip to San Antonio.

Cronin was asked about the reputation that conversation is assigning the franchise.

“I think seeing those reports and some of those things, for me, it was somewhat disturbing,” he said, “because I’ve gotten the opportunity to know Tom Dundon really, really well these last nine, 10 months, and it’s just not an accurate depiction of what his goals are.

“Yes, we’re going to run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible, in terms of having a discipline, less is more mentality. … But I’ve seen a lot of instances where he was willing to throw big money on the table in order to support this team, in order to put it on the floor, in order to make us a winner.”

Cronin called upon a scenario at the trade deadline that he presented to Dundon.

“It would’ve launched us into the tax, close to the first apron, would’ve saved the other team a bunch of money,” Cronin recalled. “We would’ve got a nice young asset, and [Dundon] would’ve had to write a check for $20 million because he would’ve inherited that tax bill, and he didn’t flinch. He’s like, ‘Yep, do it.’ And at that moment, I said, ‘OK, he’s about winning. He’s going to put money into this team whenever it’s necessary.’“

Cronin said he and Dundon have had dialogue about buying into this year’s draft using cash. Dundon, unprompted, bought the organization a new hyperbaric oxygen chamber, according to Cronin.

“So there’s a lot of spending fallacies about him,” Cronin said. “He’s going to spend when it touches the players, and the players are always going to be supported.”